Memories
by ConflictedCalypso
Summary: Written for Swan Queen Week, day three: Amnesia. Set after the return from Neverland, without the new curse and Zelena, Robin etc., so it's really an AU from there. A spell gone awry causes Regina to lose her memory, and it's up to Emma to find out who cast it and why. It's a lot harder than she would've thought, to not fall in love with a Regina who can't remember who she is.


The ringing of her phone wakes her, and she starts, reaching blindly for the offending item on her bedside table without looking. Through bleary eyes, she squints at the time in the corner of the screen and shakes her head, because six am on a _Saturday_ is really no time for her to be awake. She only answers it because of the name emblazoned across her home screen.

"Kid, do you have any idea what time it is?" She groans, collapsing back against her mattress and running a weary hand over her face. "Normal people should not be awake right now. You're twelve years old, aren't you supposed to have discovered the wonders of a lie-in?"

_"You need to come over here,"_ he practically whispers in reply, and Emma frowns. _"Now."_

"What's up?" He'd moved back in with Regina after they'd returned from Neverland – there were just too many people in Snow and Charming's apartment, and not enough beds. And until Emma moved out and had her own place, she'd agreed that it'd be easier if Henry just stayed with Regina. And then, when she _did _move into a place of her own, they could switch Henry between them every other week.

_"It… It's my Mom. _Please_ Ma, I wouldn't call if it wasn't important. You need to come here." _

"Okay, Henry, okay. I'm coming right now, alright?" He sounds worried, which makes _her _worried because Regina is _Regina _and the thought of something being wrong with her is… unthinkable. She's a rock, forever standing tall and strong, and Emma can't imagine something that would make her crumble – aside from losing Henry. "Give me five minutes."

She hangs up the phone and rolls out of bed, dressing quickly and with little care as to what she actually looks like – she could really do with a shower, but well, needs must. She settles for throwing some cold water over her face, brushing her teeth hastily and then jogging quietly down the stairs, throwing on her red leather jacket at the door and grabbing her car keys.

Her bug sits on the street outside, and she prays that it'll start up quickly today – some days it can take minutes for the engine to fire up, but today, thankfully, as soon as she turns the key the car hums to life, and she's making her way over to Regina's with trepidation creeping up her spine.

When she gets there she slips the door open quietly, because she has a key (how weird is that? That she's at a point with Regina now that the brunette actually trusts her with a key to her house, to let her in whenever she wants?), and Henry is sat waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, still in his pyjamas.

"Come upstairs," he demands, rising to his feet as soon as he sees her and, too bewildered to disagree, she follows him, letting him lead her towards the door that she now knows is Regina's bedroom. She's never been in there. It's a room that she feels she has no right to – it's too private, too intimate.

And yet Henry is dragging her towards the door, until it's looming in-front of her, and she has to put on the brakes, stopping him before he can go inside.

"What are we doing?" She whispers in a low voice, because if she's going to go into that room then she's going to need some sort of explanation. Henry sighs in exasperation, clearly agitated, but seeming to accept the fact that Emma isn't going anywhere until he tells her what was going on.

"We were supposed to go riding today," he finally answers, hand still resting on the doorknob. "That's why I'm up so early, because we were supposed to go the stables. And last night, Mom was really weird, I don't know why, but she seemed upset – so I wanted to do something nice and make breakfast for her before she got up. And so I made it and I came up here, and…" He trails off, biting at his bottom lip, and Emma actually sees tears in his eyes before he hastily blinks them away. "Please, just help her."

He swings the door open then, without another word, and Emma waits until it opens fully before stepping inside. She pauses, for a moment, because she can't see Regina – she takes in the huge double bed, empty, with the covers rumpled, the clothes lying neatly folded on the chair in the corner (she forces her gaze away from the strips of black lace she can see in that pile, because she does _not _have time to ponder what underwear Regina likes to wear right now), and the breakfast that Henry had so thoughtfully prepared lying on the vanity table.

She has to do a double take before she spots her, curled up on the floor beside the bed, back pressed against the wall. Her knees are against her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rocks absently back and forth.

Emma moves without thinking, practically sprinting across the room until she's kneeling before Regina. She hears Henry come up behind her, but she's more focused on gently prying the brunette's arms away from her face – she flinches away from Emma's touch, and the blonde drops her hands to the floor.

"Regina, what's wrong? Talk to me."

"How do you know my name?" The brunette replies after a few seconds of heavy silence, and she peers up at Emma with wide, scared eyes. "Where am I?"

"You don't… you don't know where you are?" Emma asks gently, trying to keep the worry that's clawing at her chest from showing on her face, because she doesn't want to spook Regina any further.

"No, I don't… I don't remember how I got here."

"You're in Storybrooke, Maine. My name's Emma – do you know who this is?" She reaches and grabs Henry's arm, pulling him into the brunette's view. She just shakes her head, and Emma's heart sinks. "This is Henry."

"Henry… that was my father's name."

"You remember your father?"

"Of course I remember my father, what kind of question is that?" Regina snaps, and Emma raises her hands in-front of her in a gesture of peace.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I don't… I don't remember anything. I know who I am and who my parents are, their names, but not anything about them or me. I don't remember coming into this room, falling asleep here. What's happened to me?" She sounds so fragile, so vulnerable, that Emma's heart aches, and she reaches out automatically to give the brunette's arm a reassuring squeeze.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out, okay?" Regina nods, and Emma rocks back on her heels, pondering her next move. This thing is probably magical, she decides, and that shortens the list of suspects considerably. Gold is gone, so her usual prime suspect is out, and that leaves the fairies and a couple of other known magic users in town to investigate. "Henry here is going to take care of you while I go and check a few things out, okay?"

Her phone rings, then, and she checks the caller ID before answering, rising to her feet and taking a few steps away from Regina.

"Belle? What's up?"

_"I'm sorry to ring you on a Saturday, Emma, but someone broke into Gold's shop last night, could you come check it out for me?" _

"Last night?" She repeats, the wheels already starting to turn in her mind. "Was anything taken?"

_"I'm not sure, I didn't want to disturb anything in-case it'd interfere with finding out who did it, but I can do an inventory of everything after you swing by… Why?"_

"I'll explain when I get there. Give me ten minutes." She hangs up without waiting for a reply, and drags Henry towards her, speaking quietly. "Someone broke into Gold's shop last night – I'm guessing that's connected to whatever the hell happened to your Mom. I'm gonna go down there and see what I can find out, and I'll call Snow to come over here to help you keep an eye on Regina, okay?"

"Okay." He still looks worried, and she clasps a strong hand around one of his shoulders.

"It'll be okay, kid. We'll figure this out."

x-x-x

"You got anything, Rubes?" Emma asks, standing in the doorway of Gold's shop with Belle at her side. Ruby is stood in the centre of the room, letting her superior sense of smell run riot in an attempt to find out who had been there last night.

"I can't… I can smell _something _but I don't know what. I'd need to smell it again to be able to find out whoever it is." Emma grimaces, but she hadn't really expected this to be easy, so it could've been worse. "She really doesn't remember anything?"

"Aside from her own name, no." Ruby's work complete, Emma steps into the shop, surveying the surroundings with a critical eye. The place had clearly been ransacked, with all sorts of weird objects lying on the floor, some broken, and the door had practically been torn off its hinges. "I just don't get why someone would do this to her."

"Uh, are we forgetting that she was the evil queen? Cursed the whole town, yada yada yada?" Ruby points out, picking her way delicately over the litter strewn floor until she's standing beside her two friends at the counter.

"But if that was the reason then why _now_?"

"I don't know, Em. Maybe whoever it was only just discovered whatever thing they used to do it? Or – didn't Henry say that Regina was pretty agitated last night? Maybe something happened yesterday, maybe she pissed the wrong person off."

"Maybe," Emma sighs, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "Okay, Belle, could you please try and find out if anything's missing as soon as possible?"

"Of course. But just be clear, I'm doing this for you, not for Regina."

"I know. I'm going to head to her office, see if I can find out who she had meetings with yesterday, figure out if anything went wrong in any of them. Did either of you two see her yesterday at all?"

"She was in the diner," Ruby replies, sounding thoughtful. "Came in for lunch like she does every Friday – except she didn't actually order it. Huh, I didn't think it was that weird, but now… I don't know. Maybe something spooked her?"

"Or she argued with someone there."

"I didn't see her with anyone, but it was pretty slammed. Granny might have noticed something."

"Okay, well I'll swing by there later too."

"And we'll start on clean-up and inventory – we'll call you if we find anything," Ruby cuts Emma off as she opened her mouth, anticipating what she was going to say. "Go, find out what you can."

"Thank you both."

"You owe us! Drinks, when this all blows over!" She grins to herself as she ducks out of the door and heads towards her car, firing off a quick text to Henry to check that everything is alright over there.

_She's fine – except I actually think she _likes _your Mom. It's weird. Fix it. _

She laughs as she reads the words, wishing that she could see that first hand, even if it's just so that she has something to tease Regina with whenever this thing wears off. But she has work to do, so instead she fires up her trusty bug and heads towards the Mayor's office.

x-x-x

"Did you find anything?" Is the first thing out of Henry's mouth when Emma checks back in at Regina's place a while later. She's exhausted – reading through the plans and notes from Regina's meetings was boring as hell, and she doesn't know how the other woman does it.

"Sorry, kid. She met with three people yesterday, and none of it was anything curse-worthy. I spoke to all of 'em and they weren't lying when they said they had no idea what could've happened to her."

She follows the sound of voices to the kitchen and pauses in the doorway, taken aback by what she sees. Snow and Regina are actually _laughing. Together_. David is there too, a mug of coffee clutched in his hands, looking thoroughly disturbed.

"See?" Henry whispers at her ear. "It's _weird_." She stands for a few moments more, until Snow's head lifts and she notices her, beckoning her over.

"Emma! Any luck?" She shakes her head as she strides forward and falls onto one of the stools opposite where Regina sits. She still looks scared, not like herself, and it's just so bizarre that Emma has to tear her gaze away.

"I'm going to head down to Granny's soon, see if anyone saw anything there. And I'm waiting for Belle to let me know if anything's gone from Gold's shop." She turns back to Regina as Snow hands her a cup of hot coffee, taking a long sip before speaking again. "Do you still not remember anything?"

"Not really. I… I keep having flashes, but I don't know if they're memories or just… I don't know if it's real." Emma notices then the book that lies on the kitchen counter – Henry's storybook. She didn't even know that that was still around. She pulls it towards her, running a hand absently over the front cover.

"Is showing her this really a good idea?" She directs the question towards her mother, but Snow just shrugs helplessly.

"It was Henry's idea. He thought it might help her remember."

"Remember all the horrible things I did?" Regina speaks, voice cold as she focuses her eyes on the marble counter in-front of her. "Remember that I'm a murderer?"

"But you're different now," Henry pipes up, clambering into the seat at Emma's side and regarding Regina with wide, earnest eyes. "You're not the evil queen anymore, you're just my mom. So it's okay."

Regina doesn't answer, but her mouth twists downwards and Emma wonders if maybe leaving her in the care of Henry, Snow and David had been a really, really bad idea. She's just about to send the three of them home and suggest that she'll stay here, instead, when her phone rings.

"Ruby?" She answers when she glances at the caller ID. "Please tell me you found something."

_"Not at Gold's shop, no,"_ her friend replies, and Emma breathes out a quiet sound of frustration. _"I had to leave and get back for my shift at work, but Belle's still working on it. I asked Granny though, when I got here, if she'd seen anything yesterday."_

"And?"

_"She said that Hook stormed in here in a huff, and when Regina came in he cornered her in the back and they had a pretty loud conversation."_

"Did she hear what they were talking about?"

_"Uh, well… That's the weird thing."_ Ruby sounds hesitant, which is unusual – there was very rarely anything that she'd refuse to say.

"Spit it out, Rubes."

_"She said they were talking about you."_ Emma frowns, because what on earth would Hook and Regina need to discuss _her _for? _"She doesn't know what about,"_ Ruby continues, when Emma doesn't speak. _"But she said it got pretty heated."_

"You're sure it was Hook?"

_"She's sure. And straight after, Regina took off. Looked pretty upset." _

"Okay. Thanks, Ruby." She's still frowning when she hangs up, and everyone in the room is looking at her curiously.

"What's that about Hook?"

"Apparently he had a fight with Regina yesterday. Don't know what about, but I think I'm going to need to talk to him."

"Why don't I try and track him down?" David interjects, already rising to his feet. "You've already had a long day; you look like you could use a break."

"I don't need to - "

"You look exhausted, Emma," Snow interrupts, resting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Take a breather. Eat something."

"Fine," she eventually agrees, because she suspects that arguing isn't going to get her anywhere. "Do you want to take Henry with you? Just in-case…" She trails off, not wanting to finish the thought, but Regina does it for her.

"In-case I suddenly start to remember things and revert back to my homicidal tendencies?" The brunette hisses, glaring at Emma with guarded dark eyes.

"It's just a precaution, Regina," she says gently, but the brunette merely scoffs before pushing herself to her feet and stalking from the room; Emma can only watch her go, feeling completely and utterly helpless. "Well, at least we know some things never change – even with no memory, she still hates my guts."

"My Mom doesn't hate you," Henry says as he's pulling on his coat, getting ready to leave. "She actually kinda likes you; otherwise she wouldn't have you around so much."

"I think you and I have very different definitions of the work like, kid." She presses a kiss to the top of his head and walks him and her parents over to the door. "Be good for your grandparents, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, Ma," he wriggles away from her before she can kiss him again, and she just grins because he's getting to that age where it's no longer acceptable, and she actually gets to _be _here for that. "Bye!"

"Later, kid. Call me if you find him, David?"

"Will do." She watches them from the doorway for a few moments more, as they pile into their car and head off down the street. She's a little reluctant to go back inside the house, if she's honest with herself – she doesn't know what to expect from this new Regina. At least before, she'd had some idea of how to read her.

She finds her in the study, curled up on the couch with a glass of cider in her hand. She watches Emma with resentful eyes as the blonde moves to sit opposite her, and she almost laughs because it reminds her of the first time she'd been to this house, before her life had been irrevocably changed (for the better).

"Is something funny?" Regina breaks her out of her reverie and she nearly jumps, not expecting the brunette to be the first one to break the silence.

"No, I just… my first night in town, you brought me to this room. I thought you were gonna like, lynch me or something, but instead you gave me a drink. And then you pretty much told me to stay the hell away from your kid or else."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Mhm."

"Henry… everyone says that he's my son, but then he calls you his mother as well. Does that mean… You and I, were we… together?" Emma's glad that she didn't pour herself a drink like she'd originally wanted to, because she's sure that she'd have just spilled it all over herself in shock.

"What?" She actually laughs, because the idea is just… Wow. "God, no. He, uh, I gave birth to him but I had to put him up for adoption."

"And I adopted him," Regina finishes the thought as she turns the glass around in her hand, over and over, lost in thought. "Is it really that laughable?" She asks, then, and Emma frowns, not understanding. "The thought of being with me. Am I really that horrible of a person that - "

"Wait, what? Regina, no, it's not… I mean obviously you're hot as hell and I'd be lying if I said I'd never considered it, but… You hate my guts. Like, seriously."

"I don't feel like I hate you." She regards Emma openly, and the blonde shivers a little under the intensity of Regina's gaze. "I feel like…"

"Like?" Emma prompts, suddenly very curious as to what Regina – this Regina, the one unmarred by the past and the years of hatred between her and Emma's parents, the one that didn't dislike her on sight for the simple crime of giving birth to a baby boy – thought of her.

"I feel connected to you. Like I can trust you. I thought… that perhaps if we'd been together, once, then that would explain it."

"Well, sharing a son is kinda a big connection – maybe it's just that."

"Mm. Maybe." The way Regina looks at her though, through wide, dark eyes heavy with curiosity, as though they're trying to see through her, into her soul, makes her think that the brunette doesn't believe that for a second.

"Are you hungry?" Emma changes the subject, because she's feeling more than a little awkward, and she could really do with something to eat because she's _starving_. "I can't really cook, though."

"You can't cook? Then who feeds Henry?"

"Well, when he's with you, you do – you're actually a pretty amazing cook, your lasagne is pretty orgasmic, if you ask me – and when he's with me my parents do. I tried, you know, to learn? But I, uh, nearly burned the apartment down so I wasn't allowed in the kitchen anymore."

Regina regards her with wry amusement, a smile pulling at the edges of her lips, and like this, so unguarded and free, she's breathtakingly beautiful, and Emma wonders how she's never seen it before. But she can remember all too easily the walls that Regina puts up around herself, tall and imposing and impenetrable**. **She can't remember, though, a time when the brunette had looked as at peace as she does now.

"Maybe you shouldn't cook for us tonight, then."

"You misunderstand me – when I asked if you were hungry, what I really meant was 'what type of takeout do you want'?"

Regina laughs then, fully, and Emma thinks that it's the first time she's ever heard the brunette's laughter – it's infectious and she finds herself chuckling before she realises, and she thinks that the sooner she gets Regina's memories back, the better, because she feels like she could actually fall for the amnesiac version, and that's all kind of fucked up.

They decide on pizza, in the end, and not long after they're finished Regina starts yawning. Her phone buzzes and she checks it excitedly only so see that David's not had any luck with finding Hook and is turning in for the night, ready to start again tomorrow.

She sends Regina to bed when it becomes apparent that the brunette can barely keep her eyes open, but she stays up for a while longer, curling up on the couch in the brunette's living room to watch TV.

It's a little weird, to be in there alone, but there are pictures of Regina and Henry everywhere, and it feels kind of like home. She squints at one particular photo over the fireplace, and has to clamber to her feet to investigate because she swears she can see a flash of blonde hair. Sure enough, when she picks it up it's a photo of her and Henry, taken by Regina during the Christmas just passed.

She thinks that it's odd, for Regina to even _have _a picture of her, but that it's even stranger for it to be here, on the mantle for all to see, mixed in with other family shots of Regina and Henry together. She puts it back gently, but she's frowning, still not comprehending why it would be here.

Her thoughts are interrupted when she hears a shout from above, and her head snaps up, listening intently, thinking that maybe she's imagined it. But then she hears another cry, and she's moving before she can even think about it, running up the stairs until she crashes through the door of Regina's bedroom.

Regina's eyes are closed, but her face is drawn into a frown, and she's twisting around on the bed in a way that suggests that she's having a nightmare, the covers kicked onto the floor. Warily, Emma approaches the sleeping woman and rests a hand lightly on her shoulder, trying to shake her awake gently.

The brunette jerks away from her touch, though, and before she knows what's happening Emma's back is colliding hard with the wall and she gasps as pain rips through her body. Regina jolts upright in the bed, a hand over her mouth in horror.

"Emma, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise - "

"It's fine," the blonde says even as she grimaces, running a hand over her shoulder, which has taken the brunt of the impact, gingerly. "Bad dream?"

"I think… I think it was a memory." She looks so small and frightened, curled up in that big bed, that it breaks Emma's heart a little.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not… not really." Emma nods, standing there awkwardly for a moment, not really knowing what to do. "Would you… would you mind staying? Just for a minute. I don't… I don't want to be alone."

"Yeah, okay. I'll just…" She indicates the chair in the corner with one hand, but Regina's voice stops her.

"Could you… could you come over here? If you don't want to then that's okay. I understand that it must be strange for you, you don't even like me, it's just… Like I said, I don't want to be alone."

"I never said I didn't like you," Emma points out, moving over to the bed with slight reluctance (because yeah, it's _really _weird), and sinking down onto it beside the brunette.

"It was implied."

"No – _you _don't like _me_."

"I can't imagine why."

"Something to do with me being an idiot." Regina cracks a smile at that, and Emma's relieved to see a little more colour in her cheeks – she'd been white as chalk when she'd been asleep. She's shaking, and Emma reaches for the covers, thinking that she's cold, and shuffles a little closer to her. "Are you okay?"

"I… I don't think so."

"I'm sorry, I wish I could do more to help."

"You're doing everything you can, right?" Emma nods, but it still doesn't feel like enough, and she still feels like a failure for not solving this case already, despite it only having been a day. "Then that's all you can do."

They fall into a comfortable silence, then, the only sound that of their breathing. Regina shifts so that she's lying down, but Emma stays with her back pressed against the headboard, not wanting to fall asleep here because she's fairly certain that when Regina got her memories back that she'd kill Emma for sleeping in her bed.

She waits until she thinks Regina is asleep before moving quietly to slip out of the bed and into the guest room – but a hand on her wrist stops her before she can make her escape, while she's only half out of the bed, and when she turns around Regina is watching her with scared eyes.

"Please don't leave me," she whispers, pleading, and Emma really can't say no to that. So she clambers back into the bed, lying down this time, and feels Regina press into her side. She's shaking again, so hard that Emma's surprised the bed isn't shaking, too.

"Are you cold?" She asks, rubbing a hand along the brunette's arm in an attempt to warm her up, but her skin is hot to the touch, almost burning, and she feels Regina shake her head.

"I don't… I don't want to fall asleep. I don't want to remember." As she seeks out Regina's eyes in the darkness of the brunette's bedroom, she swears that she can see a sheen of tears before the brunette blinks them away, and without thinking too much about what she's doing, Emma shifts to slide one arm around Regina's body and drag her closer, until she's tucked against the blonde's side and encircled within her arms.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you," she murmurs against dark hair, and she's surrounded by the scent of Regina's shampoo and she realises then that she's really, really fucked because now that she knows what it feels like to hold Regina in her arms she's not really sure she can ever really forget it. "If you start to have another nightmare I'll wake you up before anything happens."

"Thank you," Regina breathes against the skin of Emma's neck, and her breath catches in her throat as the brunette, previously tensed, relaxes fully against her, curling further into her side. She draws absent patterns on the exposed skin of Regina's back with one of her hands without realising – she immediately stops when she becomes aware of it, but Regina makes a quiet noise of protest that only stops when she starts up again, and yeah, she's really, really, not going to come back from this.

x-x-x

When she wakes up in the morning, she's flat on her back, and Regina is draped across her body, one leg thrown over Emma's hips and an arm across her stomach. Even breaths tickle the skin at the base of her neck, with Regina's head tucked beneath her chin, and this is definitely a good thing to wake up to in the morning.

She becomes aware of what's woken her, then – the quiet buzzing of her phone in her pocket. She manages to grab it without waking the woman beside her, and presses it to her ear when she sees that it's Belle calling.

"Hey," she practically whispers, angling her head away from Regina. "Please tell me you have good news."

_"Well, I have some news." _

"Hit me."

_"I found what was missing – they were all ingredients for a spell, and a page was ripped out of a spellbook, too."_

"So we don't know what it was?"

_"Well, judging from what was taken, and from the other books lying around, I can hazard a guess."_

"Yeah?" Regina shifts against her, moving so that she rolls away until her back is to Emma – she feels the loss as cold air creeps into the space previously occupied by Regina's body, and pulls the sheets tighter around her body.

_"It's definitely a spell for memory loss. But from what I can tell, it was supposed to only take certain memories."_

"So, what, like only erase a portion of memories? Like, relating only to a certain thing?"

_"Or event, yes, that's the gist. But it must've gone wrong somehow." _

"Any idea how?"

_"Not concretely, but if I had to guess I'd say that it's because whoever did it didn't haven't magic."_

"But I thought you had to have magic to do a spell?"

_"Not necessarily,"_ Belle replies, and Emma's thankful that she's a patient woman – she doubts that Gold would have been this helpful. _"Think of a spell as… as a recipe. Anyone can do it, if they follow the steps right, but some spells are easier than others. And dealing with memories… that's difficult, very hard to pull off without some intrinsic magical ability." _

"So whoever did it wasn't a natural."

_"Doesn't seem like it."_

"Thanks, Belle, I really appreciate it."

_"Always happy to help you."_ Emma hangs up then, mind already turning over this new information – and her suspicions were now fully on one person. She knows that she should get up and head out to try and track Hook down, but she really doesn't want to leave the warm comfort of Regina's bed.

When she turns to the side she finds dark eyes watching her and jumps, and Regina's lips curve into a smirk, and Emma's reminded viscerally of the old Regina, and for a second she wonders if whatever spell that's been cast on her has already been broken.

"Good news?" She asks, voice raspy with sleep, and Emma wishes that she could wake up to this more often.

"Kind of. I think I know who did it, at least."

"So are you going to find them, be the hero? Or, what was it that book said – the Saviour?" Emma's nose wrinkles at the word, and Regina laughs at the expression on her face.

"I really, really hate that book." Regina's mouth opens to responds when they hear the door downstairs open – Emma's up on her feet quickly, because she's pretty sure that it's going to be Henry and him finding his mothers in bed together is probably not the best way to start the day.

She tiptoes onto the landing, and sure enough Henry is racing up the stairs towards her, Snow in tow, who's looking at her curiously. "Did you come from Regina's room?"

"Yeah, I was uh, checking up on her. What's that?" She glances towards the bag Snow's holding in her hand, as Henry darts past Emma and into Regina's room. Snow hands her the bag wordlessly and she sees that some of her clothes are inside, as well as her toothbrush, and she smiles gratefully, having been too preoccupied yesterday to think about grabbing a fresh set of clothes. "Thanks. I'll just go get changed."

She dresses quickly in the guest room, before returning to Regina's bedroom – Henry is curled up next to his mother, and Snow is perched on the edge of the bed, chatting with them idly. It's still bizarre to see them talking so freely, but it's also kind of nice, to not have to worry that the wrong thing might slip out and then her mother might be engulfed by a sudden fireball.

"Where's David?"

"He headed down to the station early, to try and get a lead on Hook. Said you're free to join him if you want, but you don't have to."

"No, I think I will – will you guys be okay here?"

"We'll be fine." She worries at her bottom lip, hesitating for a moment – but Regina catches her eye over the top of Henry's head, when Snow's not looking and mouths 'go, I'll be fine', and so she does, with a final farewell, shrugging on her jacket and heading down to the Sherriff's station.

"I got you a present," David says as soon as she walks through the door, and she raises an eyebrow at him – and then looks over his shoulder towards the holding cells, and grins when she sees that Hook's in one of them, his hand and hook curled around the bars, face pressed against the metal. "I called Snow; she said you were already on your way here so I thought I'd surprise you."

"And it's not even my birthday." She makes her way over to the cell, pausing a few steps away and observing the man before her.

"If you wanted to see me so badly, love, you could've just called – there's no need to lock me away." Emma rolls her eyes as he speaks, not in the mood for his awful flirting today.

"What did you do to Regina?"

"No idea what you're talking about." But he's lying – she can tell by the gleam in his eye and then way his eyes drop from hers for just a brief second. "Can I go now?"

"No, not until you talk."

"Nothing to talk about."

"Where did you find him?" She turns back to David, who's sitting with his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head.

"I asked a few people to keep an eye out – Archie called this morning when he was walking Pongo, found him wandering along by the docks."

"Let me guess – the ship's suddenly veiled again."

"Yup, couldn't find it." She turns back to see Hook smirking, and she's a little upset that she hadn't been the one to catch him, because at least then she'd have been able to have gotten at least one good punch in.

"Will you be okay for an hour or so?" A plan's forming in her mind, of a way to both find the Jolly Roger, and hopefully evidence of the spell Hook had done on board, as well as to make him talk. "I want to go see Belle about something."

"Sure."

"Can't you send him?" Hook called as Emma's halfway to the door – when she looks back he's watching her with an amused smile on his face, and it makes her skin crawl. "You're much prettier to look at."

"Fuck off," she calls as she disappears through the door, the sound of David's laughter ringing in her ears.

x-x-x

"Okay, so, if I did the spell right, the ship should be about… here." Emma lifts one foot and gingerly feels about in the air before her – when it lands on something solid, but invisible, she lets out a yell of victory and experimentally puts more weight on her leg, until she's standing fully in what looks, for all intents and purposes, like thin air.

"You actually did it." Ruby sounds impressed, and Emma's a little offended that they didn't have more faith in her – but then a sudden gust of wind nearly knocks her off the step and into the water, and she swings her arms wildly for a moment to try to keep her balance. She manages, barely, and she glares towards Ruby and Belle, who are beside themselves with laughter and thinks that maybe they have a point.

"Shut up," she mumbles, helping Ruby up onto the same step as her – she knows from their trip to Neverland that there's three more before they're on-board, and, as soon as she steps onto the deck it's as if a fog lifts, and suddenly the ship springs into view.

"So, what are we looking for?" Belle asks as she hops onto the deck beside Ruby, the two of them looking around with open curiosity.

"Any of the things missing from the shop," Emma replies, already making her way towards the steps in the centre of the deck that lead down into the cabins below. "You guys didn't have to come," she says as the two of them follow her.

"I know, but this detective thing is kinda fun." Emma rolls her eyes, making a beeline for the main cabin, the one belonging to Hook. She stops dead in the doorway, taking in the scene before her, and Ruby steps up at her shoulder and whistles.

"Well, I'd say you got your guy, Em." The ripped pages from the spellbook lie in the centre of the large table in the middle of them room, the various other stolen items littered around. She can literally feel the magic in the air – it's oppressive, suffocating, like it's pressing against her skin and smothering her. It feels… wrong, _dark_, nothing like the magic that she's used to. "Jeez, it's creepy in here." Ruby shivers, and Emma's inclined to agree – as one, the three of them back out of the room and return to the deck, and Emma only feels like she can breathe properly again when she's standing on the solid concrete of the dock, when the ship has disappeared once again from view.

"What now?" Ruby asks as they walk back into town, heading on autopilot for the station.

"Now I just need a confession – and to know why he did it."

x-x-x

"Last chance to admit to it, Hook." Emma's inside the cell with him, but he's handcuffed to the bars, unable to move an inch – he makes a joke out of it, but she can see the slight flicker of fear in his eyes, uncertain about what's going to happen to him.

"I told you, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Even though the spell was performed on your ship, in _your cabin_, you're still going to deny it?"

"Anyone could get on there!"

"Only if they knew exactly where it was." Emma's angry, she can feel it coursing through her veins, but she fights it, because much as she might want to lose control she knows that she can't – she has to do this properly.

"I'm being framed!" She rolls her eyes and shoves herself off of the wall she'd been leaning against and makes her way over to where Belle stands. She's got a spellbook in her hands, and offers it to Emma as the blonde approaches.

"This is the one you need," she says, pointing to the text on the left hand page, and Emma just looks at it blankly because that is _not _in English.

"I can't read that."

"You don't need to – I thought you were having magic lessons with Regina?"

"Not from a book."

"Okay, well, you just have to, like – breathe it in."

"What?"

"Just hold it," Belle shoves the book into Emma's hands and pushes her gently over towards Hook's cell. "Can you feel it?" She nods because she can feel _something _– it's like the words on the page are alive, and she swears she can feel the paper vibrating slightly beneath her touch. "Breathe it in – let it show you what to do."

It's weird, to think of taking instructions from a book, but then again her parents are freaking Snow White and Prince Charming, so she can't really talk about weird. So she does what Belle said – she leans close over the page and takes a deep breath, and then nearly falls on her ass as magic invades her every sense, taking over her body.

Her hands shake and the book nearly falls to the floor, but Belle takes it from her gently and reminds her to keep breathing, and she closes her eyes, trying to ground herself. She thinks of Regina, of what she's trying to do, and when her eyes open again she feels more in control of herself, and she approaches Hook slowly.

"What is that?" He asks, flinching back against the bars of the cell, as far away from Emma as he can possibly get. "What did you do? What are you doing?"

She reaches for the side of his head, letting the magic guide her, until her fingertips press against his skull, and she concentrates hard on the memory that she wants to see – of Hook and Regina in the diner, the day that she'd lost her memories.

She hadn't thought that mind reading was actually a thing, until she'd asked Belle out of curiosity, because while she knew that Hook was responsible, she couldn't for the life of her think _why_. And that was the last piece of the puzzle, the thing she needed to solve, so when Belle had mentioned a spell that allowed for the forced recollection of particular memories, she'd decided to do it.

She knows it's a gross invasion of privacy, doesn't like the thought of rooting around in somebody else's head, but if it'll help Regina, she'd do it a hundred times over. Hook tries to fight her, but in the end she's stronger – she has pure, white magic, after all, and he's just a pirate – and the memory plays out before her eyes.

_"What the hell do you want?" Regina snaps as Hook corners her in the back of Granny's, having been waiting for her to walk in. _

_"I want to talk to you. About Emma."_

_"If you want advice on your love life, I suggest that you - "_

_"I've seen the way you look at her," Hook interrupts, smirking when Regina's mouth snaps shut and a faint blush rises on her cheeks. "Like a lovesick puppy."_

_"Oh, please, have you looked in a mirror lately?" Regina fires back, eyes black with anger, as her hands curl into fists at her sides. "You're one to talk." _

_"I want you to stay away from her." Regina's eyebrows raise and she bristles at the demand – no-one tells a queen what to do._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"Stay away from her. Stop letting her see the kid just so you can spend time together – it's pathetic to watch, to use your boy like that, because you know that she won't even want to be in the same room as you if not for him."_

_"Are you _jealous_?!" Regina's lips curve into a smirk, and she steps closer, getting into Hook's personal space – he takes a step back, and her smirk widens. "Now, _that's_ what's pathetic."_

_"Stay away from her," Hook repeats, voice steady. "Or I'll tell her how you really feel about her, and we'll see just how fast she runs away then."_

_"I'd like to see you try," Regina hisses, before she stalks away from him, head held high. Hook watches her go, anger growing, deciding that, since his threat clearly hadn't worked, he needed to take further action_.

Emma watches as he breaks into Gold's shop, steals the things he needs and then takes them back to his ship, performs the spell under the cover of darkness, smirking the whole time. When she finally rips herself out of Hook's head she's furious, and she's pulled her hand back, ready to punch him squarely in the jaw, before David catches her elbow and drags her back a few steps.

"You took away her memories because you were jealous I was spending more time with her than you?!" She practically shouts, and it's a good thing David's still got ahold of her because she wants to rip him apart. "Seriously?!"

"I did what I had to do, love. You were falling for her," he accuses, and Emma opens her mouth to deny it but she can't quite form the words. "I knew I wouldn't have a chance if I didn't intervene – I was only trying to make her forget how she felt about you; I didn't mean for her to forget everything."

"You are _the _most - "

"Okay, I think it's time you took a walk," David says as she lunges towards Hook once again, and he hauls her towards the door. "You need to cool off. I know you're mad, but beating up Hook isn't going to make it better."

"It'll make me _feel_ better though," she mutters sullenly, but David doesn't smile – he looks really, really concerned and she wonders what she looks like. She catches a glimpse of her reflection in the window and has to do a double-take – her eyes are wild, and she doesn't look like herself. "What are we going to do with him?"

"We'll talk about that later. But I think you need to go home, take a break. Go see Regina." The conversation between Regina and Hook rushes back to her, then – she'd pushed it away, in light of her all-consuming rage, but now it hits her like a train, because Regina… Regina has feelings for her.

Or had, she supposes. Because the Regina that she'd woken up in bed next to that morning didn't know who she was, couldn't feel anything for her because she'd only known her for less than a day, and she feels a stab of pain in her chest because she remembers something else, from the memory, a single line of the spell.

"It's not reversible," she says quietly, and David glances down at her with a confused frown. "The spell. It's irreversible. She'll never get her memories back." Tears prickle behind her eyes, and David immediately wraps her in a hug; she buries her face in his chest and wills the tears away, because she cannot let herself cry.

"True love is a powerful thing," he murmurs, mouth close to her, and she pulls back, and she's the one frowning now.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why aren't you like… freaking out right now? Am I in some alternate dimension? Did the spell go horrifically wrong and I'm trapped in Hook's head?"

"No, but… you and Regina… you're not exactly subtle. It was just a matter of time."

"That's ridiculous! I only realised how I felt for her when she lost her memories!"

"You might have only _realised _it then, but that doesn't mean that it's not been there for a long time. Honestly, Emma, even Henry's been wondering when you were finally going to get together. Hell, the whole town has."

"That's… not…"

"Just go home," David laughs, pulling her back into a hug and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Go to Regina. Break the curse."

"But… even if she's my true love – and that's a big freaking if, okay – she doesn't love me. Not without her memories. She barely even knows me."

"Then you'll just have to make her fall in love with you – it shouldn't be too hard, you've already done it once."

x-x-x

Its three weeks later when Regina kisses her.

Three weeks of torture, three weeks of pain, three weeks of Emma trying not to cry every time she looks at Regina and laments on what could have been, if only she'd realised what she felt sooner, if only Regina hadn't so determinedly pushed her away instead of pulling her closer.

She'd moved into Regina's place for those three weeks, to keep an eye on the brunette as well as to look after Henry, who didn't want to leave his home. It's hard not to think of it as her home, now, too – it certainly feels like it.

She sleeps in Regina's bed. Ever since that first night, the brunette had been terrified to sleep alone, and Emma had been powerless to resist the request. It was torturous, though, to keep her hands to herself, when Regina was so close to her, but she'd managed.

Barely.

She's been waiting for Regina to make the first move, because there's no way that Emma's going to risk pushing her, when she's still struggling to come to terms with what had happened to her, when she's trying to find herself, this new her with no recollection of who she really is. So she's been patient, she's taken care of Regina, and their son, she's endured the family dinners (Regina has re-discovered her love for cooking, when Emma had gone out and gotten her a recipe book), and everything else – the film nights, with Regina on one side of her and Henry on the other, the game nights, where she'd had to endure the highly competitive nature of both Mills' – and all it had served to do was to make her fall more and more in love with Regina.

So when Regina practically lunges at her in the kitchen one evening as they're making their dinner (Henry is spending the night with this grandparents), pushing Emma back against the wall and kissing her hard, Emma's frozen for several long seconds before her brain can actually process what's happening, and she's able to kiss her back.

Her hands fall to Regina's hips and she yanks her closer as her tongue licks into Regina's mouth, and she moans because God, she feels like she's been imagining this moment forever, and none of it compares to the reality.

She _feels _the rush of magic, rather than sees it, and Regina pulls away from her almost immediately, staring at her with wide, dark eyes. Emma can only stare back, breathing heavily, leaning back against the wall because she's afraid that without its support her legs won't hold her up.

"I remember," Regina murmurs, touching her fingers to her lips, as though she can't quite believe that they've just been attached to Emma's. "How?"

"Do I really need to answer that for you?" She replies, and her voice is shaky, because her brain feels a little like mush, short-circuited because now she knows what it's like to have Regina Mills' tongue in her mouth.

"…You love me?"

"It would appear that we're meant to be," she says, skirting around the question because she wants to say it properly, at the right moment, and now, like this, is not it. "Ironic, isn't it? The Saviour and the former Queen?"

She can tell that Regina's dying to ask more, can practically see the questions forming on her lips, but then something changes in her expression and she takes three quick steps forwards until her lips are on Emma's again, and Emma can only surrender to the feeling, because hell, they can talk about it later – they'll have a lifetime to talk about it, if the true love things' true. It's a little scary, considering her history of relationships (or rather, lack of), and her being a commitment-phobe, but it's very easy to forget all about that as Regina's lips move away from her mouth and down the slant of her neck, teeth grazing against the blonde's pulse point, hard enough to leave a mark.

Emma's hands, at Regina's waist once more, move down to grab at the brunette's ass, dragging her closer – a thigh falls between her legs and she groans, pressing down against it, the friction sending a spike of heat to her core.

Regina moves back up to kiss her once more, mouth opening to Emma as the blonde pushes off the wall and guides the brunette to the kitchen counter – she lifts her onto it with ease, without breaking the kiss, and steps between her legs.

Regina's thighs close around her waist, and she can feel the liquid heat of Regina's sex against her stomach (thank God for skirts, she thinks), as she lets her hands run up the brunette's thighs, nails scratching lightly at her skin.

She groans when she realises that Regina's not wearing pantyhose like she thought but suspenders, and when her hands ghost higher she discovers that she's not wearing underwear and she groans again, because _God_, that's hot.

"Were you planning this?" She breathes against the skin of Regina's neck as she kisses her way down to the brunette's chest – she rips the shirt she's wearing, buttons scattering everywhere, and gets a glare of disapproval for it (yeah, her Regina's definitely back), but it's soon wiped away when Emma's teeth close around a nipple through the lace material of Regina's bra, a moan spilling from red lips.

"Perhaps." Her voice is breathy, as a hand moves to grab at the back of Emma's neck, holding her head close as the blonde deftly flicks the clasp of the brunette's bra open and circles a straining peak with her tongue. "I may have… arranged for Henry to spend the night away."

"I didn't realise I was so irresistible," she smirks against Regina's skin, and she can practically feel Regina rolling her eyes.

"Don't get cocky." She doesn't answer – instead she cups Regina sex with one hand, her moan mingling with the brunette's when she feels how wet she is.

"Fuck," she breathes, and Regina tugs her back up into another kiss, her hips trying to press against Emma's hand as her tongue explores every inch of the blonde's mouth. "I'm surprised you're letting me do this in the kitchen," she teases as she runs a single finger through slick heat. "Isn't it unsanitary?"

"Stop talking," Regina says, and a hand tightens in Emma's hair as her eyes flash, "and just fuck me."

"_God_." She obeys, unable to do anything else, leaning back to watch Regina's face as she presses two fingers inside of her, groaning at the feeling of finally being completely and totally surrounded by Regina, after what feels like an eternity.

She listens to Regina's laboured breathing, her loud, echoing moans as she begins to set a rhythm, using the extra weight of her hips behind her hand to thrust deeper, and it's not long before she can feel Regina tighten around her fingers, pulling her deeper. She uses her free hand to pull Regina into a kiss as she coaxes her further towards the edge, letting her thumb flick against the brunette's clit with every thrust of her fingers.

Hips buck desperately against her hand, and she waits until she can feel that Regina's practically there, about the come, before she stops abruptly, pulling away from the open-mouthed kiss and smirking when Regina whined.

"What are you doing?"

"I love you," she murmurs into her ear, and she feels Regina's breath catch in her throat at the admission, and she swears that when she looks at her she's blinking away tears. "I love you so fucking much."

"I love you too," Regina breathes back, and her voice breaks a little, and Emma smiles against the skin of her neck. "But if you don't finish what you started I might have to kill you."

"I'm getting there, calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down when you – oh, _God_." Emma drops to her knees without warning, so hard that she'll probably have bruises tomorrow, but she finds it a little hard to care because now she knows what Regina tastes like and she doesn't think that she'll ever be able to get enough.

It takes just a fluttering of her fingers, still buried within the brunette's centre, coupled with a few tight circles her clit with her tongue, before Regina comes, her hips pressing hard against Emma's face as she rides it out, thighs clamping around her head.

She doesn't stop until Regina comes twice more against her mouth, until she tugs Emma up because she can't take anymore. She's collapsed back against the counter, eyes closed and chest heaving, and Emma just watches her catch her breath, the taste of Regina still on her lips, and thinks that she's never been so content.

"You're staring."

"Am I not allowed to?"

"No." Emma ducks her head and grins, pulling Regina upwards so that she can wrap her arms around her back and hold her close – she can hear the thundering of her heart beneath her ear, and she swears that it's beating the same frantic rhythm of her own.

"We should probably call the others, let them know that you're back," Emma says regretfully, because she doesn't want to leave the inviting circle of Regina's arms just yet, but she knows that she can't keep to herself forever.

"They'll survive for a few more hours – are you really so eager to be rid of me?" She's teasing, but when Emma glances upwards she sees that there's a vulnerability there, too, and she wonders when the last time Regina had let herself love was. Wonders just how scared she was, beneath the façade.

"Never," she replies softly, leaning upwards to press a quick kiss to Regina's cheek.

"Promise?"

"I promise."


End file.
